PASSINGS: Barbara Trister, Eliseo Alberto

Barbara Trister

Longtime L.A. publicist

Barbara Trister, 90, a longtime Los Angeles publicist who served as president of the Los Angeles Headquarters City Assn. in the early 1980s, died July 27 of age-related causes at her home in Brentwood.

A native of Redlands, Trister attended USC. She worked as fashion editor of California Apparel News and as a public relations executive focusing on fashion, real estate and retail clients. She also served on the late Mayor Tom Bradley's fashion advisory committee for retailing, manufacturing and textiles.

As president of the Los Angeles Headquarters City Assn., she led the organization's efforts to attract headquarters companies to the greater Los Angeles area and keep the ones already based here.

Eliseo Alberto

Cuban-born writer

Eliseo Alberto, 59, a Cuban-born writer who was the author of the melancholic novel "Caracol Beach," died Sunday at a Mexico City hospital just days after receiving a kidney transplant, the Mexican government's National Institute of Fine Arts said.

Alberto, who was born Sept. 10, 1951, in Arroyo Naranjo, Cuba, worked many years as a journalist in his native land before he became an exile in Mexico in 1990. He received Mexican citizenship in 2000.

Affectionately known as "Lichi," Alberto said his books explored Christian themes such as regret, forgiveness and punishment. He also wrote poetry, and TV and movie scripts, and taught at film schools in Cuba, Mexico and the United States.

His 1997 book "Dossier Against Myself" was a critical look at Cuba and dictator Fidel Castro. A year later Alberto received the Premio Alfaguara de Novela, an international Spanish-language literary award.